Color by the Canal

For his family's studio-residence in Venice, California, architect Glen Irani infuses cool modernist forms with feverish hues

Edie Cohen -- Interior Design, 2/1/2005 12:00:00 AM

A decade ago Glen Irani took a chance walk through Venice, California, and fell in love with its dense, charming landscape of waterways and houses. "I thought it was like a puppy—beautiful but unruly," says the Los Angeles–born architect, who decided to build his first home in the sea-level community. Two canal-side residences later, he wouldn't live anywhere else: "The record speaks for itself."

Adding to Irani's Venice trilogy is a three-story hybrid where the architect and his wife, artist Edith Beaucage, live and work. Architecturally, it's an amalgam, too. The 3,000-square-foot, two-bedroom steel, glass, and concrete modernist box, which sits snugly on a 30-by-95-foot lot, reflects Irani's training at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and Richard Meier & Partners Architects. But its startling orange-and-blue facade, to say nothing of its vivid polychrome interiors, is light years away from his mentors' cool International Style. "For me, architecture starts with function," explains Irani, principal of his namesake firm. "Then I infuse it with romantic ideas of life and space."

Planning began with the work spaces. Irani gave himself a corner studio on the ground floor. Rolling metal desks project from a steel counter that stretches the length of one wall; above, plywood cabinets fronted with colored acrylic panels house a reference library. The glass wall on the other side of the room, which adjoins a 40-foot-long lap pool, slides back in true Southern California fashion to create an open-air pavilion.

Beaucage's studio is at the opposite end of the house, in the top corner where there's 'plenty of light. Between the two work zones, the second-floor living-dining-kitchen area embraces a large terrace, which the couple's 31/2-year-old son, Marlo, has staked out as a playground. Furniture groupings and custom-built cabinetry demarcate areas within the open-plan living space. A curvaceous storage wall of bleached bird's-eye maple stained with metallic dyes anchors the kitchen. Irani used the same material, along with painted wood and resin, for the blocky island that houses the oven and cooktop.

Another rounded wall of touch-latch cabinetry surrounds the fireplace. This time the material is steel, acid-washed and waxed to a warm blue tone. In front of the hearth, a Martin Visser sofa and a trio of Irani's own two-seater Pad chairs converge around a reproduction of Isamu Noguchi's iconic coffee table.

For dining, Charles and Ray Eames wire-mesh bikini-pad chairs and a maple table of Irani's design abut a window wall with views of the canal. A pattern of large amoeba-like shapes—inspired by the biomorphic forms in Beaucage's encaustic and gouache works—is sandblasted onto the glass, providing a modicum of privacy.

Irani credits his wife's métier with the house's most striking quality: the color palette. "More than 40 colors were balanced on an artist's color wheel and developed into an experimental theory," he explains. "We focused on what occurs when many colors are united in one space." The colors seem to dance on the walls as orange, scarlet, bronze, celadon, and robin's-egg blue in the living space give way to chartreuse in the stairwell. The vibrant shade is a magnet drawing you up, as are a skylight and the apertures 'punched in the wall, which allow light to play on the cantilevered stair treads strung on stainless-steel rods.

The couple's bedroom, which occupies two thirds of the top floor, has a saturated-red ceiling. "It's like sleeping beneath a Bedouin tent," says Irani. Silver satin curtains add a layer of shimmer when pulled from pocket niches flanking the windows.

Screened behind sandblasted glass partitions and lit by pendant globe fixtures, the bathroom juts into the master suite like a freestanding lantern. The integrated unit incorporates an acrylic tub, a pair of porcelain sinks, painted MDO cabinetry, a clear acrylic countertop, and a mirrored back wall. There's something nautical about its compact, efficient design. "It's very aqueous in the dawn light," notes Irani, as if it were emerging from an early-morning Venetian fog.

Previous spread: For the ground-floor studio in his Venice, California, residence, architect Glen Irani built mobile desks from single slabs of 1/4-inch-thick steel that curve around roller-mounted pedestals. Sliding glass doors open to the 40-foot-long lap pool.

Left: Built-in storage walls—bird's-eye maple in the kitchen, acid-washed and waxed steel in the living area—demarcate zones in the second-story living space. The concrete floor is finished in matte acrylic. The dining area is furnished with reproductions of Charles and Ray Eames wire-mesh chairs and a maple dining table of Irani's design. Above: Color breaks down the mass of the rear elevation. Below: Martin Visser's BR sofa and Irani's Pad chairs are upholstered in outdoor acrylic fabric. MDF custom cabinetry and art by Irani's wife, Edith Beaucage, flank the fireplace, faced in steel.

Opposite: On the terrace, Beaucage shows current work to legendary architecture photographer Julius Shulman, seated in a vintage wire chair.

Above: An oversize amoeba-like pattern, based on Beaucage's art, is sandblasted on the glass wall of the second-floor dining area, which overlooks the lap pool. Below: Cantilevered maple-and-steel stair treads strung on stainless-steel rods flex slightly under heavy loads.

Below: Encaustic and gouache works in Beaucage's third-floor studio.

Opposite, top: In the master bathroom, porcelain sinks paired with Arne Jacobsen polished-chrome fittings are mounted on a custom clear-acrylic counter. The sandblasted glass partitions provide privacy from the bedroom. Opposite, bottom: The front elevation is mostly glass, affording canal views in nearly every room.

PROJECT TEAM: JAMES RENNY CALECA; TIMOTHY GRANT. POOL (POOL AREA): IMPERIAL SWIMMING POOLS. TILE: MONTEREY CERAMIC TILE MARBLE. FENCE PANELS: CYRO INDUSTRIES. CUSTOM CABINETRY (STUDIO): ADVANCED CABINETRY MILLWORK; ABET (LAMINATE). TASK CHAIRS: KARTELL. SOFA (LIVING AREA): SPECTRUM THROUGH IN-EX. COFFEE TABLE (LIVING AREA), CHAIRS (DINING AREA): MODERNICA. PAD CHAIR, SOFA FABRIC (LIVING AREA): GLEN RAVEN. RUG: IKEA. FIREPLACE: COMMERCIAL SHEET METAL. CUSTOM CABINETRY: FUNCTIONAL ART BY COLIN LE GALLEZ. COUNTERTOPS (KITCHEN): RICHLITE COMPANY THROUGH FOUNDRY SERVICE SUPPLIES. SINKS (MASTER BATH): LACAVA; VOLA (FAUCETS). TUB: AMERICH CORP.; DORNBRACHT (FAUCET). PENDANT FIXTURES: AMERICAN-DE ROSA LAMPARTS. ARTWORK: THROUGH ANDREWSHIRE GALLERY. PAINT: FRAZEE PAINT. CUSTOM WINDOW SYSTEM: AMERICAN GLAZING. STRUCTURAL ENGINEER: PARKER RESNICK STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS. MECHANICAL ENGINEER: EARTHSTAR ENERGY.